


Saudade

by Nova_Moshi



Series: Homebound [1]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hornet continues to be the best big sister, More fluff for the poor children!, Someone please help lost kin, and my writing continues to (probably) get sadder, they deserve the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 11:27:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17897576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nova_Moshi/pseuds/Nova_Moshi
Summary: Their broken kin, they couldn't be lost forever.... they simply couldn't.....Could they?





	Saudade

The lifeseeds were spilling out of their arms at a rapid rate.

Of course this was partially because Ghost was adamant about tugging Hornet the entire way while clasping her hand. They said the little organisms couldn't run far before they turned back to retrieve them.

Hornet was left in the dark about just _where_ they were heading all this life to, but Ghost had come to the huntress in an excited frenzy so much so that they seemingly forgot how to project their thoughts. She had followed without hesitance, yet now she was starting to wonder just how much longer they had to journey.

As if reading her thoughts, Ghost pointed ahead of them in two quick jabbing motions.

_Almost there._

Not a minute later they finally arrived at their destination.

Ghost didn't stop in their gait, but Hornet halted as soon as she laid eyes on who was in the room.

The broken vessel, their _lost kin_ , was laid on the floor. Flowers and other shiny bobbles adorned their fallen body in a makeshift grave, which Ghost sat beside.

_Don't be afraid Hornet. We help sibling._

It was then that she understood their plan, quickly coming to settle down by their side.

“You are aware this might be fruitless, correct?”

Hornet hated to be the downer, but she had to make sure Ghost understood that reality might reject their attempts at re-animating life.

They didn't respond right away, instead plucking the first lifeseed from their arms and letting it scurry into their broken siblings’ head. When the vessel didn't stir, Ghost emptied their arms and steadied the slowly growing blob of blueness. Hornet stacked in her pile next, then went to retrieve the ones that had escaped, promising she would be back soon.

Ghost watched her leave then turned their stare back at the broken vessel, watching the lifeseeds congregate together into one amorphous shape. Still their sibling did not move, and it caused the first pings of worry to crowd their chest.

_Please wake up._

The child leaned forward, gently pressing their forehead to their cracked one. _I miss you…_

They sat there for many moments, waiting for anything to happen. For their sibling to stir, for themselves to fall asleep waiting, for Hornet to return and drag them away; her heart in the right place while their nonexistent one broke. 

They waited and waited and waited…

Out of the top of their vision they saw something move and snapped their head up in such a manner that would have given them whiplash if they cared about the pain.

A butterfly, a brilliantly blue butterfly had formed from the blob of lifeseeds and was fluttering its wings nonchalantly atop the vessel’s head. Then in the same movement the rest of their body began to twitch.

Ghost leaped up in an instant and could barely contain what they assumed to be excitement. Oh how they wished Hornet could be here to see the spectacle. They were alive! They were waking up!

Before their excitement could reach its peak however, the vessel’s head lurched at an unsafe angle, thus causing a _crack_ to reverberate through the walls of the cave. The sight and sound caused those earlier wisps of worry to return tenfold in Ghost’s mind. What was happening? Were they ok? This certainly never happened when _they_ took in the lifeblood for themselves.

At seeing their back arch higher than physically possible, with their head still and lifeless on the ground, Ghost knew something was wrong.

 _Hornet!_ They rushed back out of the room, trying not to let the fright rip them open.

□□□

“Crowding them is not going to make them wake up any faster Ghost.”

The little vessel inclined their head towards their sister, the only sign they’d heard her at all.

_Watch sibling. Make sure they not hurt._

Hornet sighed, putting down the stone slab she had been studying to rise and sit on the side of the bed with Ghost. Her little sibling could be as stubborn as a rhinoceros beetle when they set their mind on something. They hadn’t left the broken one’s side since Hornet had dragged them from the Ancient Basin and fixed them up where they were currently staying in the Watcher’s Spiral. That had been nearly a week ago, and her little sibling had not budged or slept a wink in the passing days.

Ghost’s sense of duty and need to protect was admirable- and normally Hornet would praise them for it- but they were ignoring their own needs in the midst of it all. This base instinct inside of them was chalking up to be a little more trouble than the Pale King could have ever prepared anyone for. 

“What if I demanded you sleep?” She had asked them a day prior.

Ghost hadn’t taken their stare off their kin.

 _I would refuse._ Was their snippy answer.

She had left it at that, but now, Hornet wasn’t going to have her commands go ignored.

“Ghost, as Queen of Hallownest I am ordering you to get some sleep. You are going to worry yourself sick over our sibling.”

They didn’t budge, but she could see their form tense.

“If you do not move I will move you myself.”

Ghost shook their head, gripping the sheets in quiet defiance.

With a heavy sigh, Hornet gripped her sibling around the waist and deftly raised them with ease. Predictably, Ghost struggled in her grip, vainly pushing against their sister’s arms to get free. Their movements had become shaky and sluggish with their lack of sleep however, so it didn’t take long for them to submit, hanging limply in Hornet’s arms.

It was worrying how quickly their energy was spent.

_Sibling…_

Their tone nearly made her heart twist. Ghost was going to fall into a state of depression at this rate. She had been through such a dark place before, and was not about to let her sibling fall prey to it as well.

“Come now little Ghost,” She rearranged them in her arms and rubbed their head. “You’ll feel better in the morning. I’ll watch over them, but you are to stay in bed understood?”

The head rubs had placiated them to a point, but Ghost still looked crestfallen. 

_Promise?_

“Promise what?” Hornet pulled back the silken curtains to one of the side rooms in the spiral, still subconsciously rubbing her sibling’s head. There was not much to the tiny chamber, but then again, Ghost didn’t need much to be kept entertained. Anything their big sister was interested in caught their child-like attention and wonder, especially when it came to ruling business.

 _Promise watch sibling?_ They looked up at her with naive intent.

“I will make sure they are still here when you awake.” _In the physical sense,_ she wanted to add, but decided against it. Hornet settled Ghost down in their own bed, wrapping the child up in every blanket and quilt available in the vicinity.

It was not a promise in the slightest. Hornet did not like making pacts with words that could shatter at the tiniest inconvenience. Spiders silk was stronger.

There was nothing to indicate that the broken one would ever come to. In fact every odd was _against_ their favor, yet she couldn’t tell that to Ghost. It would shatter what little hope they had left. Hope that they would be less alone in this vast convoluted world.

“Rest well Ghost. May your sleep be free of dreams.” Hornet could have sworn she saw a glint as she spared one glance back at her sibling, but decided it to be a trick of the light as she closed the curtains.

□□□

Unbeknownst to Hornet, Ghost had not budged from their position sitting up. The little one wiped the beginning of void tears away from their mask. How could they sleep? How could she _expect_ them to?

They sat still and rigid in their cover prison, listening to the retreating steps of Hornet in the dead silence of night. She said she’d watch over their broken kin, said they would still be there in the morning. She didn't promise, but Ghost could tell she wanted to.

Ghost would have fallen asleep; they were certainly tired enough, but worry was taking over any other waking thought in their mind.

They wanted to do something. They were _itching_ to help in any way they could- but they only knew how to fight and tend to their own wounds with soul. Any healing beyond that, any other aspect of life was lost to them. They were a vessel, meant to be hollow, so they knew nothing about the intricacies of life or how to fix it. They were utterly useless in the situation.

Ghost despised it.

□□□

Come morning Ghost groggily rose from their bed, feeling a dull ache of irritation in the back of their skull. They felt even worse than they had been yesterday, and sighed at themself. Hornet was right, they were beginning to worry themselves sick. 

That should have alarmed them- could vessels even get sick?- but they would discuss it with Hornet later. Right now the pounding in their head was a good enough reason to slip back into sleep…

A distressed shriek from the other room snapped them wide awake.

Ghost tumbled out of bed and nearly tripped and fell over the many covers holding them captive, all in an erratic display to hurriedly run into the main room of the spiral.

In their panic they almost barreled into Hornet, who was up and alert from the scream as well. As soon as they steadied themselves a finger was placed over their mask in the space their mouth would have been.

“Shush. We do not want to scare them more.”

It had slipped the little Ghost's mind for a second that there was another with them, but it all came rushing back once they saw who had made the scream.

The broken vessel had awoken, but the lifeseed bulge on their head had disappeared- or rather evaporated off their form. The hole in their mask was now sealed, and their third horn had regrown in the process. The broken one was now whole again.

Yet that didn't stop them from quivering. They looked down at the duo in what was clearly fear, their hands shaking in grim anticipation to grab their nail, but at some point they must have realized it wasn't on them, so they stood in an unsteady version of a battle stance.

“Calm yourself,” Hornet reached out a steady hand to show them that they meant no harm. “Neither I nor Ghost are going to hurt you. We are friends not enemies.”

Her words did little to make the vessel cease their shaking, but they did stop clinging to the wall to get a better look at them both.

_F-Friends…? That ‘Ghost’ hurt me._

Ghost dipped their head, trying not to let the immense guilt rise up in their chest again. Some emotions they just _really_ did not want to relive.

 _Trying to help, infection took over your body. Thought could beat out of you. Thought kin would get better. Wouldn't have attacked otherwise._ Ghost kept their gaze glued to the ground, resisting the urge to bolt out of the room lest their siblings see them cry. They had wished for these emotions, _dreamed_ of them when dreams shouldn't have even been a thing they could have, and now they were paining them. They wanted to feel more, _feel_ what Quirrel and Hornet could feel, _feel_ happy when they wanted to; instead of trying to fake it, _feel_ pain and react to it accordingly; instead of seeming indifferent, _feel_ like a normal bug. They wanted, and that was part of the problem. They _wanted_ to be more than a vessel. They _wanted_ to _feel_ alive.

Now, some dark part of them was regretting it. Emotions weren't all they were cracked up to be.

There was a long stretch of silence, in which even the unending rain seemed quiet and dull. Then simultaneously, both vessels uttered a ‘sorry’. 

It surprised Hornet enough that she swept her glance from both her kin. “What have you got to apologize for my sibling? Being stricken by infection was not your fault.”

The taller one looked down as well, shuffling a foot around and around in the covers. _Hurt Ghost. Hurt...others, didn't mean to._

Before Hornet could respond, Ghost hopped up on the bed- nearly making the other vessel fall over- and embraced them in a bone crushing hug.

Their sibling was frozen, seemingly unsure about what to do faced with the situation of affection. 

Despite not knowing her, they looked to Hornet in a silent plea for help. She made a quick notion of hugging, and the vessel replicated the movement as best they could. 

In doing so, Ghost shuddered. They couldn't hold back the well of sadness inside them any longer and started to cry. Oily black tears leaked from the holes in their mask, and it took every ounce of willpower Ghost had to not collapse right then and there. It startled their siblings, but the knight could care less. 

They couldn't even tell what they were feeling. Was it happiness? Sadness? That guilt from earlier suffocating them? Whatever it was, it was foreign and it _hurt._

Before long, from frantic gestures of their arms, Hornet picked the two up and held the weeping Ghost closer to herself as she sat down on the bed. 

Their lost kin held onto her cloak tightly. After a moment's hesitation they whispered, _I forgive you._

There was quiet, then Ghost peaked from Hornet's side, their chest heaving from silent sniffles.

 _G-Glad_ … They paused, looking at their sister for a split second. A look passed between them, and Ghost rested their head back on her side. _I forgive you too._

The little vessels looked like they wanted to exchange more words, but Hornet could also see how tired they were. Pleasantries could wait on sleep.

“You two will have plenty of time to catch up later, but for now it is time for all good beings of void to go to sleep.” This time, Ghost didn't complain. They curled up even more into Hornet's warmth, more tired than ever after that exhausting- yet therapeutic- crying. 

Their other kin obliged as well, nestling into the soft heaven of covers after they wiggled out of Hornet's grip. 

The girl smiled, gently tucking in Ghost next to their sibling. She could see Ghost start to physically relax, melting into the calm sensation of sleep. 

“Dream no more my little siblings, and may the darkness provide you both with comfort.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact, I actually have like 5 other stories for Hollow Knight written up and ready to be posted- but I can't post them all at once sadly
> 
> So just know you'll be getting a lot more out of me yet!


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